Tissue Tigers, QR Codes and Clouds, Doctors and Medicine.

An email from the World Wildlife Fund yesterday emphasises the dangers to tigers and elephants because Asia Pulp and Paper is pulping the rain forests where they live. WWF is asking people to sign a pledge and to avoid certain paper products in particular Paseo and Livi – don’t know of them round here, but…. I am copying a paragraph from the email I received:

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is pulping rain forests and replacing them with pulp plantations to provide paper fiber for products like the fastest-growing brand of toilet paper in the United States today, Paseo. Since 1984, APP's forestry practices have cleared 5 million acres of Sumatra's forests--an area the size of Massachusetts. With only about 400 Sumatran tigers and fewer than 2,800 Sumatran elephants left in the wild, the remaining habitat is critical to these species' survival.

Its easy not to realise the dangers because we don’t see all this deforestation in our own back yards. 5 million acres is one hell of a lot of trees which have ended up as paper to flush down the toilet. Lets get together and try and do something about this. We should all sign the pledge for a start. In fact there are a number of pledge links on the page. The Sumatran Tigers are severely threatened at the moment which is why they are being featured.

Do you know what QR codes are? I am afraid I didn’t. It cropped up as a question on Jeopardy. Of course, I don’t have a Smart Phone either so I can’t take advantage of them, but I was just reading about them and they sound very useful. If, like me, you had no idea what they are, read this article from 50Plus which explains what they do. They apparently act a bit like bar codes, you can scan them with your Smart Phone and they will then refer you to a site where the information you are looking for can be obtained. I am afraid the cell phone technology is leaving me behind these days. Desktops and laptops are no longer enough. Matt would probably argue that it didn’t matter to us any more and while logically that is correct, I am one of those who would like to have all the latest tech to hand. Having been an avid sci fi reader all my life, it fascinates me to see how some of the ideas propounded by my favourite authors are being realised by today’s technology. I used to have friends who figured authors thought up the ideas for their books and then scientists came along and actually invented the systems. I think in many cases they could well be right.

Another thing I didn’t know much about was Cloud computing as it didn’t seem to be applicable to me. It isn’t. It appears to be much more business oriented from what I read. As I am no longer involved in any kind of business, I guess I won’t bother to pursue it.

For supper the last two nights we have had Chicken in Tarragon Sauce (July 17, 2010 blog) which is a very simple but delicious meal. We were very glad we had enough for Wednesday night as they changed Matt’s doctor’s appointment to 5:40 p.m. with the result we didn’t get home until about 6:45 p.m. All we had to do was heat it and we were ready. Chatting to the doctor about the difficulties of young people getting into medical college (you need marks of 97% apparently) she was saying how foolish the whole system was. Because of the money to be made as a doctor, kids are encouraged to enter the field because the places where they should use their talents, such as research, didn’t pay any money. Therefore we are losing brilliant minds who are confined to being GPs etc. and actually hating their jobs, which was why we are getting so many surly doctors. A friend of mine also mentioned that the government had closed down medical schools which made places even harder to get. Her niece is having to study in the US which, of course, is where she will end up practicing. How extremely short sighted the whole business is. We are desperately short of doctors anyway and the government isn’t doing anything much to remedy the situation. Our own doctor has now turned her centre into a group practice so that one could see any doctor in the place although it is advised if one doctor starts treating you for something, you should stick to that person. However, if you want to see a particular doctor, you could wait weeks. Can’t say I like that, but as the doctor said, we will get used to this way of doing things. By the way, I finally have an appointment to see a specialist for my shoulder, in May!!!!!!! Now that’s screwy if you like. Its such a pity, our medical system has so many good things going for it, but through government short sightedness, things are going sadly wrong.

I was interested that our doctor, who is very young, says she actually made house calls when she lived and worked in England. I thought that went out a long time ago, but we left in ‘75 so maybe it was still happening for a while after that.

As usual, I am inundated with recipe emails several of which I found rather boring. However, this one following sounded pretty good to me. I must admit I am not generally in favour of using canned soups in recipes, but we do so once in a while.

Pineapple Plum Chicken Meatballs

Yield : 4

Courtesy of CookWithCampbells.ca™ Food Network
Substitute the chicken with extra lean ground turkey in this mouth-watering recipe.

Ingredients

Pineapple Plum Chicken Meatballs

• 1 pound (454 g) extra lean ground chicken
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) bread crumbs
• 284 Mililitre Can CAMPBELL’S® Condensed Low Fat Cream of Chicken Soup
• 398 Mililitre Can pineapple tidbits, drained
• 3 tablespoons (45 mL) plum sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon (0.5 mL) ground black pepper
• 2 cups (500 mL) hot cooked brown rice, cooked without salt

Directions

1. Combine chicken, egg and bread crumbs in medium bowl. Form into 1¼” (3 cm) balls – about 18 to 20.
2. Brown chicken meatballs in large non-stick skillet at medium-high heat, turning often.
3. Combine soup, pineapple, plum sauce, ginger and pepper. Add to skillet and heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through. Serve over hot cooked brown rice.

Tip

1. Cayenne pepper gives an extra flavour kick to the sauce – replace the ground black pepper with the same amount of cayenne.
2. Pineapple Plum Turkey Meatballs: Choose extra lean ground turkey to replace the chicken in this mouth-watering recipe.

Have a great day